Long handwritten note, deep in your pocket
Words, how little they mean, when you're a little too late
I stood right by the tracks, your face in a locket
Good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait

We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair

In dreams, I meet you in warm conversation
We both wake in lonely beds in different cities
And time, is taking its sweet time erasing you
And you've got your demons, and darling they all look like me

'Cause we had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair

Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting
Silence, this train runs off its tracks
Kiss me, try to fix it, could you just try to listen?
Hang up, give up, for the life of us we can't get back

A beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic, beautiful tragic, beautiful

What we had, a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair

We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair

Although her collaborations on this album are big hits...it's this one--one she wrote on her own--that really blows it out of the water. She's never done a song like this before...but she does it soooooo well. Very mature. Restrained. And the vocals are so perfectly controlled; flawless.

Can't get this out of my head. Its mood is irresistibly sad and lovely.

My Interpretation"Long handwritten note, deep in your pocket
Words, how little they mean, when they're a little too late
I stood right by the tracks, your face in a locket
Good girls, hopeful they'll be and lonely will wait"

He has written an apology for her but he has waited too long to do this (maybe he didn't care enough to do it right away) and now he is to late for her to forgive him. She waited a long time for him to say that he is sorry because she is naive - she thought she was something special and believed she was the one for him.

We had a beautiful magic love affair
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair

This refers to that what they had together was unique - This love made her feel enchanted. But now its all over - it can never be the same - but still what they had together was beautiful and too good to be true.

In dreams, I meet you in long conversation
We both wake in lonely beds, and different cities
And time is ticking a sweet summer race in you
And you've got your demons and darling they all look like me

She keeps hoping that they will talk it out and find a way to make it okay and she hopes that somehow he wishes to make it up to her and does that. He actually thinks a lot about her too and is kinda lonely without her. He knows he has really messed up and feels bad about hurting her - he is haunted by demons - (maybe he does care about her and is a good guy inside but he still does stupid things - he might have kissed with some other girls - because he can't help not to) but still he did those stupid things to her even though she has done nothing wrong but believing in true love.

Distance, tire me, break down, fighting
Silence, this train runs off its tracks
Kiss me, try to fix it, would you just try to listen
Hang up, give up, for the life of us we can't get it back

This shows what went wrong for them - they fight, she (and possibly him) breaks down, there's nothing to say - silence, everything was perfect but then suddenly it went wrong - the train ran off its tracks. She wants him so bad to make an effort to fix their relationship, she is angry because he wont listen but still she wants him to kiss her so she will feel better but then she realizes there really isn't anything to do and even though they tried again, it would never end well/be the same because of the things he has done and how he made her feel so sad and depressed - how can you have a relationship with someone who has done these terrible things to you.

My InterpretationI think it is about a girl who thought her boyfriend was the one and he dumped her for unknown reasons. She went into a depression and went to the tracks to die. she wrote him a suicide note but he was too late to save her.
(Long handwritten note, deep in your pocket
Words, how little they mean when you're a little too late
I stood right by the tracks, your face in a locket)

Her friends are waiting for her to come home, she never does (Good girls, hopeful they'll be and lonely will wait )

Before she dies she remembers the dreams she had where they were still happy
(In dreams, I meet you in warm conversation
We both wake in lonely beds, and different cities)

She tried forgetting him but it didn't work, she couldn't handle it- hence the suicde
( And time is taking its sweet time erasing you)

He is really guilty about the break up and the suicde
(And you've got your demons and darling they all look like me)

He had a job that required moving a lot and that slowly killed their relationship (Distance, timing, break down, fighting)

Then it's about the boy trying to save her. He arrives and only hears silence and hopes the sucide train has run off course
(Silence, this train runs off its tracks)

He finds her dead- overdose, she couldn't wait for the train. He goes all fairy tale and kisses her- trying to fix it
(Kiss me, try to fix it)

He wishes he had listened to her because he could have saved her
(could you just try to listen)

Before she wrote the note, she called him but she hung up, giving up and realizing their lives together wouldn't be able to happen
(Hang up, give up, for the life of us we can't get back)

She's dead and he still loved her and now everyone is sad
(We had a beautiful magic love affair
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair )

General CommentTaylor penned this hushed, intimate number when she was sitting on her tour bus after a show thinking about a relationship that ended several months previously. She explained to Billboard magazine: "The feeling wasn't sadness and anger or those things anymore. It was wistful loss. And so I just got my guitar and I hit on the fact that I was thinking in terms of rhyming; I rhymed magic with tragic, changed a few things and ended it with what a sad beautiful tragic love affair. I wanted to tell the story in terms of a cloudy recollection of what went wrong. It's kind of the murky gray, looking back on something you can't change or get back."

Red covers the whole spectrum of emotions and this cut lies at one end of the range. "I'm 22," Swift told Billboard magazine. "I'm all over the place, so my record is all over the place. Part of this record is acknowledging [that] all these emotions are very loud and very different from one another. At one end of the spectrum you have 'Sad Beautiful Tragic,' which is a breakup song in the form of a funeral march, and you also have 'Never Ever Getting Back Together Again', which is a breakup song in the form of a parade."

General CommentThis song completely explains my last relationship that went wrong. It was long distance and eventually he stopped trying and I never knew why. I basically begged just for some closure and all he said was we just can't be together right now. Maybe someday. I swore there had to be more of a reason behind it than that because you just don't give up on someone you love that easily. He always indirectly tries to contact me through a snapchat picture or liking my Instagram picture now but he's done so much damage that no matter how much I still love him, I could never go back to him. It will never be the same.